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It’s 2002, believe it or not, and if
you’re like most of us you’ve made the usual overly ambitious New Year’s
Resolutions. I do not want to
discourage you from working out, writing that novel or learning a foreign
language, but there are a few simpler tasks that you could put on your list. Consider
Buying a New Computer – Prices have dropped and
computers have become very inexpensive. If
your computer is more than 30 months old, then you will probably have a hard
time functioning with the new web based MLS system due to be released in the 3rd
quarter of this year. You should
have a computer with at least a 600 MHz processor (Pentium III or equivalent)
with 128 Mbytes of RAM to use the current suite of software typical to most
Realtor offices. The price of a
system, much more powerful than the minimum I outlined, has dropped to around
$500 from over $1,500 about 18 months ago!
Once you add a monitor and a few options, you’ll probably spend about
$1000. Old, underpowered computers
impose a extra burden of hassle and frustration.
Faster, newer computers are easier to use and will increase your
productivity. Get
Virus Protection – You may have had a virus
protection software package at some point, but it probably isn’t working now.
Remember it’s not the computer that you are protecting it is the
information and business relationships stored on the computer that are very
valuable. If you are a productive
Realtor, then you will have contracts, correspondences, mailing lists and data
sets stored on your PC. If those
are wiped out, you will be in a world of hurt.
Think of the weeks of time and energy that those file represent.
As valuable as the data is, you relationships are even more valuable.
As you develop an e-mail address book that contains contact information
for Realtors and your clients you have special concerns.
Many computer viruses spread by automatically sending themselves to all
of your saved contacts. Your
professional reputation will be devastated by an e-mail virus disaster. Norton Anti-Virus from Symantec (www.symantec.com/nav)
and McAfee’s VirusScan (www.mcafee.com) are both good products.
But neither product will protect your system unless you buy it, install
it and maintain it with routine updates. These
programs can be setup to check for updates via the Internet every week and then
perform a complete scan of the system. Depending
on the type of service that you opt for the annual cost of this protection can
range from $20 to $50. You should
subscribe to a virus update service because hackers are constantly writing and
devising new destructive viruses. Check
Your e-Mail – Most HAR members are using Microsoft
Outlook Express. Eudora and the full version of Microsoft Outlook are also
popular. The most important thing
about using e-mail is that checking is several times a day. The Internet consulting firm of Gomez Advisors performed a
survey and learned that Realtors who responded to e-mails in under an hour
converted about 30% of all inquiries to customers, while Realtors who took 24
hours converted about 10% to customers. Responses to inquiries over 48 hours old
resulted in no customers. There are
several useful features of your e-mail that you should learn: 1) use folders to
automatically sort and organize messages, so you can pay closer attention to
genuine inquiries and weed-out junk mail, 2) Use the “auto-forwarding”
feature to send e-mail alerts to your digital cell phone when you do receive a
genuine lead, 3) Set-up an “auto-responder” to give an immediate response to
inquiries until you can respond to the e-mail personally, and 4) Configure your
mail box so you can check your mail from either work or home.
But the most important thing about e-mail is to check it frequently.
Younger buyers have become very accustomed to using e-mail to
communicate, and they really expect a prompt, if not immediate, reply. Now don’t think of these suggestions as an
“either-or” thing. If you take
these 3 simple suggestions to heart, you may have more time and money to pursue
other interests. Who knows, you may
have to work on that novel and go to the gym. |
